Review – Where She Fell by Kaitlin Ward (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Horror
Length: 304 pages
Publisher: Point
Release Date: October 30, 2018
ISBN-13: 978-1338230079
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Bought at Bookfair
Rating: 3/5 stars

“Watch your step.
Eliza knows the legends about the swamp near her house — that people have fallen into sinkholes, never to be seen again, maybe even falling to the center of the earth. As an aspiring geologist, she knows the last part is impossible. But when her best friends drag her onto the uneven ground anyway, Eliza knows to be worried.

And when the earth opens under her feet, there isn’t even time to say I told you so.

As she scrambles through one cave, which leads to another, and another, Eliza finds herself in an impossible world — where a small group of people survive underground, running from vicious creatures, eating giant bugs, and creating their own subterranean society. Eliza is grateful to be alive, but this isn’t home. Is she willing to risk everything to get back to the surface?”

This book has an interesting premise but fell short of being really good. Some plot elements were never resolved and some of the twists the story takes are just plain confusing. There are also inconsistencies throughout the story.

Eliza loves geology and wants to become a geologist after high school. \However, when her friends talk her into going into a swamp with known sinkholes things quickly change for her. Eliza falls into a sinkhole and she soon finds herself in a large cave with a group of other survivors. Survivors that have been living here for years and tell her there is no way out. Now Eliza has to solve the mystery behind this cave and the people here in order to make her way back home.

Some things about this book were pretty neat; I loved the creatures underground and enjoyed the geology that was discussed.

However, a lot of the character interactions were odd and not resolved well. For example one of the characters named Glenn seems out to get everyone but in the end he seems more helpful than harmful; I didn’t understand what was going on here and was a bit confused. There were a number of issues like this throughout the book…where things just didn’t quite make sense.

The story wraps up really quickly at the end and seemed very rushed. It was pretty unsatisfying and left me feeling a bit cheated.

Overall this was an okay read but not great. The premise was cool but the execution was uneven and a bit confusing. I don’t plan on reading more books by this author.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– New Release Reading Challenge
– Goodreads Reading Challenge